over her white teeth, tempted
him beyond his powers of resistance.

"Come!" he whispered to her, and with a quick turn of the hand he had
swung her out of the fiery circle, and drawn her towards the surrounding
dark. A few steps and they were on the mountainside again, while behind
them the top was still aflame, and black forms still danced round the
drooping fire.

But they were safely curtained by night and the rising storm. After the
first stage of the descent, suddenly he flung his arms round her, his
mouth found hers, and all Helena's youth rushed at last to meet him as he
gathered her to his breast.

"Geoffrey--my Tyrant!--let me go!" she panted.

"Are you mine--are you mine, at last?--you wild thing!"

"I suppose so--" she said, demurely. "Only, let me breathe!"

She escaped, and he heard her say with low sweet laughter as though
to herself:

"I seem at any rate to be following my guardian's advice!"

"What advice? Tell me! you darling, tell me everything. I have a right
now to all your secrets."

"Some day--perhaps."

Darkness hid her eyes. Hand in hand they went down the hillside, while
the Mount of Victory still blazed behind them.

Philip and Lucy were waiting for them. And then, at last, Helena
remembered her telegram of the afternoon, and read it to a group of
laughing hearers.

"Right you are. I proposed last night to Jennie Dumbarton. Wedding,
October--Await reply. PETER."

"He shall have his reply," said Helena. And she wrote it with Geoffrey
looking on.

Not quite twenty-four hours later, Buntingford was walking up through
the late twilight to Beechmark. After the glad excitement kindled in him
by Helena's and Geoffrey's happiness, his spirits had dropped steadily
all the way home. There before him across the park, rose his large
barrack of a house, so empty, but for that frail life which seemed now
part of his own.

He walked on, his eyes fixed on the lights in the rooms where his boy
was. When he reached the gate into the gardens, a figure came suddenly
out of the shrubbery towards him.

"Cynthia!"

"Philip! We didn't expect you till to-morrow."

He turned back with her, inexpressibly comforted by her companionship.
The first item in his news was of course the news of Helena's engagement.
Cynthia's surprise was great, as she showed; so also was her relief,
which she did not show.

"And the wedding is to be soon?"

"Geoffrey pleads for the first week in September, that they